Return of the Mucker
Series: Mucker 2
Reviewed date: 2009 Oct 19
Rating: 2
212 pages
In The Mucker, our hero Billy Byrne changes from a low-life mucker to an honorable man. In Return of the Mucker, Billy goes back to Chicago to stand trial for murder. Billy is innocent, and he naively believes that he will be exonerated and clear his name. Not so. He is railroaded through a corrupt system and sentenced to life in prison. He escapes rather than submit to this injustice. Billy Byrne, once a mucker, now a man of noble character, is on the lam.
Billy befriends a poetry-quoting hobo called Bridge, and together they roam the countryside. The police close in on Billy, so they both make a run for Mexico. In Mexico, they get caught up in turf wars. Billy joins Pesita, a ruthless renegade outlaw. Bridge ends up at El Orobo Rancho, where the American manager Mr. Grayson hires him as a bookkeeper. The ranch's owner turns out to be Mr. Harding; he and his daughter Barbara are visiting the ranch in Mexico. Unfortunately, all three Mexican factions have decided that the only good American is a dead American, so the situation turns dire.
There are all sorts of fights. Billy eventually discovers that his true love Barbara is at the ranch, and he rescues her several times. In the end, they escape to the US where Billy discovers his conviction has been overturned. He and Barbara get married. Happy ending, hooray!
You can read The Mucker and Return of the Mucker online at Freeread.com.au.